The Crow: Tapped
by Serrinatta
Summary: Another The Crow. Will keep up the eerie sadness of the original and it's own plot twists. Please review as to how you like it. (i really want to know if I'll be hitting ona good thing)


The Premise: ***read this paragraph if you want to know the basic idea, but it may just give it away!! You have been warned*** The idea is that the main character is a scientist who was trying to save the life of his sister with his research. In the end, he died finding out that his coworkers gave up and had ended her life. In a rage (one that I haven't figured out myself yet) he died, but his coworkers went behind his back and cloned his sister. Years later he is resurrected to avenge her death and his. But he rejects the revenge and instead believes he can still cure what his sister was dying from so that it will never happen again. As his "life" goes, he locks away all that reminded him of his sister, and denies his right to revenge. But he is faced with all that he rejects when he comes face to face with his sister's young clone.  
  
  
  
He was one of them. A man, brought back to life, with a crow as a companion. Strangely, he lived alone in an abandoned home that lay on a rocky ledge overlooking town. No one really noticed the place any more, and it was never bought. He, on the other hand, stayed there and rarely left. He did not need food, nor water, or even sleep, though he indulged in it from time to time. The home - dilapidated a bit - consisted of only a few rooms. There was first, the living room that was mostly empty with only the couch and a coffee table backed up to it so no one could sit. On the far side, were a few stairs that led to three doors. The first door - located on the left because the right side of the hall was made of windowpanes - was locked and filled with things he dare not look at. The next was the bedroom that was so dark; one would hardly be able to see the four-poster bed against the far, angled wall of more windowpanes. The third door at then end of the hall and it had another set of stairs behind it. The floor was not level with the hall; instead, it dropped directly down another ten to twelve feet. But the stairs went five steps up into the cavernous room. They were metal stairs, connected to a metal catwalk that snaked off into the distant, dark back of the room. The catwalk also branched off into several computerized workstations, or more stairs leading to lower or higher areas. In a jovial sense, one would call it the bat cave, but to him, all it was, was work.  
  
He never had any company or visitors over, as no one knew he was there. Once, there had been a bum, who was too spooked to even apologize as he ran from the premises. That didn't bother him much, he never thought about anything other than work.  
  
---*---  
  
That as; how it should have been. to him. However, things never turn out in one's favor as often as not.  
  
---*---  
  
"Mom, let me in the house!" Aariahna tugged furiously on the knob of the front door to the house. "Mom! The neighbors let their dog out again! Let me in!!" On the edge of the property a massive Bull Mastiff - chocolate in color - was pacing. She knew it wouldn't stay there for long. Even though there was the invisible fencing that they put in to keep the dog out, it would still try against the shocking collar. It could easily make it to the door on a good day. "MOM!" her scream was piercing as she pounded on the door and rang the bell. She hoped that the new adjustments to the fencing would work; as the neighbors were always trying to make it better. They were nice people, and so was the dog, in many ways. It only went after her.  
  
At that the dog decided to charge. It came straight towards her, only faltering slightly halfway up to her. "MOM!!!" she hollered before she bolted for the back of the house. The Bull Mastiff wasn't far behind. As it came around the corner of the house behind her, it began to slow. The painful effect of the collar triggered by the invisible fencing was beginning to take its toll. As she reached the back door, she looked horrified at the dog. To her surprise - and thankfulness - it was starting to swagger side to side. She hoped it would collapse as it does on the other occasions that it can't get to her. But her hope fell as she heard the familiar triple-beep of the fence being turned off. Normally, she would hear this from inside with the control panel they had, or from the controller the neighbor possessed, but this time she heard it from the collar upon the dog.  
  
The dog seemed to relax, as if it had been warding off the pain, and now that it was gone, the dog could relax. It became so relaxed that it actually fell over. The gigantic Bull Mastiff had passed out. Aariahna's breath was in gasps as she realized her danger was over. Upon longer understanding, she wondered where her mom was. Aariahna had always kept meticulous care of knowing where her mom was in case of this exact situation. She should have been home from work over two hours ago. She worked with the neighbors and other people from town at the Scientific and Medical Output Center - SMOC for short - just outside of town, and she was never late. Aariahna quickly peeked in all the windows that she could reach. Some had the curtains drawn, but what she could see was emptiness. This scared her; for her mom should have been home.  
  
Aariahna decided that perhaps she should head over to SMOC and find out if there was an emergency that her mom would have been delayed.  
  
---*---  
  
He was at work again; typing away at one of the workstations that were in the large room. The double helix of the human DNA strand he was analyzing continued to break down in his simulation. This angered him and he slammed his fists no the console in anger. Rising, he walked out of the room but stopped short in front of the locked room in the hallway. He stared at it for a long time before he went back into the large room once again to work.  
  
---*---  
  
The rain began to sprinkle and clouds formed as Aariahna was closing around the end of town on her bike when she heard a familiar, yet chilling sound. The Bull Mastiff had woken, and was following her. She pedaled faster, as hard as she could, but she was going uphill and her increase in speed would be minimal at best. Aariahna had to think fast. There was a small stream off near the abandoned home that people stood clear of. She knew that from her schooling. Perhaps she could be like the foxes in a hunt and follow the stream a ways up river - or down - in an attempt to stage off the dog's sense of smell. She immediately took a sharp left turn and scrambled up an unbeaten path through the wood around the base of the rocky ledge the home sat upon. After another reminder barked out from the mouth of the dog, Aariahna found the stream. Immediately she turned her bike to follow it's deepest center - though that was only about a foot - and the water splashed up around her. Within a few feet, she was soaked but she didn't care. She hadn't heard the dog's howl since she first got on the stream. After a minute more, she left the stream on the opposite side. The rain began to spatter and Aariahna wondered if she really needed to run the stream. It was geeing so dark that she realized she would only find the road again when she was on it, and the same went for the stream. She pedaled off as the rain came in buckets. "Where.?" She wondered aloud as she searched feverishly for the stream once again, or the road for that mater. The dog was barking again, and it was getting closer too. She just needed to get where the dog couldn't.  
  
Abruptly, she turned her bike uphill and headed for the abandoned home. If there was anything that could stand in the dog's way it was being inside. She rode onto the bare rocks and carefully made her way to the house. Stopping suddenly, she realized she didn't know if she would be able to get in or not. Getting off, she walked her bike up to the home and came around it to find the door. She knocked slightly to be polite but she believed no one was home. She tried the knob. Even though it was rather rusted, it turned and the door creaked slightly open. She poked her head in and could smell the mustiness of an abandoned home.  
  
Just then she heard a growl from behind her. Turning, she let go of her bike and it rolled a ways away before it crashed behind the tree line. The Bull Mastiff had found her. She quickly jumped inside and slammed the door shut. The door bowed out like a billowing sail when the dog hit it's out side. Aariahna heard a small splintering sound and knew that she needed to get elsewhere in the house. She scrambled into the first room but barely had enough time to register its sparse furnishings when she heard parts of the door breaking. She spotted across the room a short stair. She was about to head towards it when she stopped and saw the man standing quietly at the top. She froze. His face was un readable, perhaps he didn't care that she was there, or that the dog was smashing his door to splinters, but he did seem to be looking at her, or at least through her.  
  
There was another loud splintering sound from the door as it crashed inwards. Aariahna turned in shock. The brown Bull Mastiff shook itself slightly before charging straight for her. The man was looking at it as well when it jumped her. Aariahna screamed even louder that the growl the dog was emitting in her face. She attempted to punch the dog, but in her swing it snapped at her hand. In the following heartbeat, the dog abruptly stopped. It seemed confused, and was sniffing around. It looked up, and sniffed in other directions almost ignoring her under its large mass. It then looked directly at the man on the stairs, and growled low. Aariahna tried to push it off her but it looked down at her and growled again. It was confused, for it began to look back and forth from one to the other and in between the growls there were whimpers.  
  
This time Aariahna used force, and was able to extract herself from underneath the dog's massive weight. She jumped over the coffee table and landed roughly on the old couch. The man stepped down into the room now, and the dog looked at him in confusion before hopping on the couch after her again. She wasn't afraid anymore, and so she thrashed out with her arm and elbowed it in the jaw. The Bull Mastiff lost its balance on the giving couch cushions as it snarled at her in frustration. She scrambled back along the couch to get leverage from the armrest. The dog used the springiness of the couch and made a dive at her. Just as it landed on her it was thrown off in a howl from the man. The man had come around the other side of the couch while Aariahna and the dog were engaged in their battle. He threw the Bull Mastiff to the floor in almost inhuman strength. The dog fell in a thump and it couldn't decide weather to whine or growl. It skittered from side to side before both man and dog mutually decided to charge. They crashed into each other and both tried to get an advantage in the battle. The scuffle made it's way to the door where the man finally got the advantage. He threw the dog out of the door that it had broken in. Quickly the man slammed a metal door over where the wooden one had been.  
  
The man was breathing heavily, and he looked up at her from his semi- crouched position against the door with his head bent low. Aariahna didn't know what to say. She had broken into this man's home, and even though she was a trespasser, he still saved her from the dog that was now barking away outside. Aariahna tried to think hard as to what to say to him, but before she could open her mouth he grunted and walked back up the stairs that she had first seen him upon. 


End file.
